A bloop single proved to be Toronto's undoing in Tuesday's baseball marathon at Minneapolis.
Pinch-hitter Jeff Cirillo singled in the winning run with the bases loaded in the 12th inning as the Minnesota Twins beat the Toronto Blue Jays 2-1 in front of 27,000 fans at the Metrodome.
Michael Cuddyer celebrates as he scores the winning run on Tuesday.
(Jim Mone/Associated Press)
Cirillo's decisive hit was nothing more than a flare into centre field, just shallow enough to elude hard-charging outfielder Vernon Wells, who dove valiantly but came about a foot short of snaring it.
"I almost feel a little guilty because the ball fell," Cirillo said. "It was a flukey hit, but I'll take it.
"It's weird, you're celebrating a hit, but it's a bloop hit. It's like, whatever, OK, let's jump up and down and go home."
Minnesota loaded the bases off reliever Brian Tallet (2-2) on singles by Michael Cuddyer and Lew Ford and an intentional walk to Mike Redmond before Cirillo's blooper clinched it.
"We have won a few games on those kind of hits, that's just part of it," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "It was a great battle on Cirillo's part [and] he just put it in the perfect spot."
"Everybody was pitching well and it was a matter of who was going to flinch first," Blue Jays catcher Gregg Zaun said. "We're talking a matter of inches from missing Vernon's glove."
Juan Rincon (3-1) pitched one uneventful inning to earn the win in relief.
Jason Kubel drove in the other run for the Twins (39-36), who managed nine hits in the contest — one each by nine batters.
Howie Clark had the lone run batted in for the Blue Jays (38-38), who had won four straight games and five of six.
Frank Thomas remained stuck on 499 career home runs, going 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
Thomas is bidding to become the 21st major leaguer to hit 500 career homers, the first of which came at the Metrodome on Aug. 28, 1990.
Minnesota starter Scott Baker pitched into the eighth inning, giving up one run on four hits with nine strikeouts and a walk.
Baker not only set a career high in strikeouts, but whiffed four Blue Jays in succession: Matt Stairs, Troy Glaus, Thomas and Zaun.
"Bake just did a fantastic job," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "That was two good pitching staffs going after each other."
Toronto starter Shaun Marcum battled Baker pitch for pitch to remain unbeaten (3-0) in nine starts since being moved from the bullpen into the rotation on a regular basis.
"He is a little bulldog," Zaun said.
Marcum limited the Twins to one run on six hits and a walk with two strikeouts over eight innings.
He was lifted after allowing a leadoff single to Jason Bartlett in the bottom of the ninth inning.
"He goes out there and pounds the strike zone and mixes his pitches very well," Zaun said. "He's not afraid of any lineup and just pours it in there every night and takes his chances."
Kubel breaks deadlock
It remained scoreless until Marcum flinched in the seventh inning, issuing a walk to Cuddyer and a single to Torii Hunter.
That brought Kubel to the plate and he delivered Cuddyer with an RBI double to right field to make it 1-0.
Hunter advanced to third base on the play, and later tried to score on Redmond's flyout to right field, only to be thrown out by Alex Rios.
Rios's throw travelled up the baseline, but Zaun grazed the batting gloves peeking out of Hunter's rear pocket with a lunging tag, prompting Gardenhire to argue the call.
"I just wanted to get the focus off Torii," said Gardenhire, who was eventually ejected by home plate umpire Mike Winters.
"He made the right call."
Zaun led off the eighth inning off with a walk, the first of the game for Toronto, and scooted to second base on Aaron Hill's single to left field.
Baker was replaced at that point by reliever Dennys Reyes, who yielded a sacrifice bunt to rookie Adam Lind before giving way to Pat Neshek.
Clark greeted him with a sacrifice fly to right field that plated Zaun with the tying run.
With files from Sports Network
